


And There They Were

by randomprose



Series: The Morning Will Come [1]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Boys Kissing, Drinking & Talking, Drinking to Cope, M/M, Smoking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-22
Updated: 2016-05-22
Packaged: 2018-06-09 22:29:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6926224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/randomprose/pseuds/randomprose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Two boys on a rooftop, their coffee cold and their vodka cheap.</p>
            </blockquote>





	And There They Were

**Author's Note:**

> Tsukishima is a ball of anger and misery here but what's new.

Kei looks down from the rooftop on Monday at dawn.

He exhales the smoke from his drag as he notices a mover’s truck and wonders who’s the idiot that decided to move in to this godforsaken part of town. Probably some desperate loser who has nowhere else to go, he thinks, just like all the other tenants here. Just like Kei.

He smirks as he saw one of the movers carry in a box he knows contains bed frames. He knows that particular model is a bitch to assemble, he has one. The new tenant has to be good with tools and have a hell of a lot of patience for that because he himself doesn’t. Kei didn’t even bother to try. The frames are rotting in the corner of his small room.

Kei doesn’t watch the whole moving scene. He finishes his cig and flicks it over the edge.

\--

On Friday Tobio picks up the ball that’s been rolling around his apartment for the first time since he moved.

It feels heavy on his hand and he wants nothing more but to throw it against the wall but he’s already done that and all it did was bounce back and crash through his window. The landlord got angry and made him pay for it and now he has to survive until the end of the month with whatever’s left of this month’s allowance.

So he grips the ball in his hands and breathes out.

The rooftop is empty and Tobio stands in the middle with his volleyball in his hands and his eyes on the horizon. He closes them and immediately regrets it.

Flashes of an abrupt game, the ball hitting the ground, being called out and watching from the sidelines plays through his mind. He hasn’t been in training for months because he’s on ‘time-out’ but Tobio may be brash and prone to losing his temper but he is not dumb and he knows that he’s out of the team. His grades are slipping and the Admissions Office just called to warn him that he’s on the verge of losing his scholarship. He’s done nothing for the past months but waste his allowance and rent money on useless shit and he had to move out of his previous apartment because he couldn’t afford it anymore.

He feels like throwing the ball again but he can’t because the rooftop doesn’t have fences and the ball will just bounce off to god-knows-where. It’s the only one he has.

The floor is cold as he lies down. He lets out a shuddering breath and tosses the ball above him.

\--

There is already someone on the rooftop when Kei climbs up.

Some idiot is lying down on the cold ground in the middle of autumn in nothing but a tracksuit. He’s playing with a battered volleyball tossing it up and down, up and down in a steady rhythm.

Kei stands over him and looks down. The person stops tossing the ball and looks right back at him. His face is blank and his eyes are electric blue and as dead as Kei’s own. He’s never seen him around here before.

Ah, Kei realizes, must be the new tenant. He must be for Kei has never seen anyone else up in the rooftop since someone jumped off from it a couple of months back. This person doesn’t seem to know about the tragedy.

Contempt and annoyance flashes briefly inside him before Kei realize he has no right to kick this person off the rooftop. Besides, the cynic in him says, he’s probably gonna jump off himself any time soon if that lifeless look on his face is anything to tell by. Nobody keeps their sanity around here. They either jump off the edge or find other things to waste their selves away with.

The person just nods and Kei shrugs before sitting down. A moment passes and the ball tossing resumes.

Kei lights a cigarette.

\--

“Here.”

The blonde looks up but doesn’t say anything. He stares at Tobio with distrustful eyes through his glasses. Tobio lightly shakes the Styrofoam cup when he still doesn’t take it.

“What’s this?”

“Coffee.”

“For what?”

“For not kicking me out last time.”

Tobio saw the brief disdain that flashed in his eyes that day. He looked like he wanted to kick him out before he thought better of it and just let him be. Tobio understands spaces and territory and that sometimes people get possessive over them, especially when it’s the only place they can go to. The rooftop is clearly Glasses’ but he didn’t kick him out and for that he is thankful.

Glasses snorts but takes the cup anyway. “It’s not like I own it.” He says before taking a sip and grimacing. “Why the fuck is this cold.”

It wasn’t a question and Tobio shrugs, an apology, as he takes a sip of his own cold coffee. “Wasn’t that hot to begin with. Better than nothing though.“ And then as if an afterthought he says, “I’m Kageyama. Kageyama Tobio. I just moved in 4C last week.”

“I know. I saw you move in. Tsukishima Kei. Welcome to this hellhole by the way.”

“I’ve seen you around campus. What’s your major?”

“Something I don’t give a fuck about.”

Tobio nods in understanding and doesn’t ask anything else.

He watches as Tsukishima shakes his head before reaching for his pocket and pulling a flask. He twists the cap with his thumb and index finger before pouring whatever is inside in his coffee. Tobio catches a whiff of it and realize it’s vodka. Tsukishima must’ve caught his stare because he reaches over to pour some over Tobio’s coffee too.

“It’s cheap but it’s better than nothing.”

\--

“I was on the volleyball varsity team, starter player and all that.” Kageyama says a month later. “Well, not really but I’m supposed to replace our official setter once he graduates. I got a full-ride to uni on a volleyball scholarship. Parents were ecstatic. Couldn’t stop talking about it for months.”

It’s 3AM on a Sunday and they’re on the rooftop sharing a bottle of Smirnoff. The air is cold signalling the coming winter. Puffs of smoke come out every time Kageyama opens his mouth. Kei’s down to his last stick of cigarette.

“I trained all day and night. If I’m not in class, I’m holding a ball. I lived and breathed volleyball, you know?”

His words are a little slurred and Kei knows he’s at least a little drunk because Kageyama doesn’t talk if at all when sober. His words just keep on coming and it doesn’t seem to matter to him if Kei’s listening or not. It grates a little on Kei’s nerves because he hates talking, but there is a pleasant buzz in his head and the nicotine hits him just right so he lets Kageyama babble nonetheless.

“All I wanted was to win, you know? Oikawa needed a break and I was switched in. All I wanted was to win and we were but then—but then—”

Kei takes a drag, lets the smoke travel to his lungs before blowing.

“There was no one there and I was benched and then I was just—kicked out. Just like that.”

He watches as Kageyama takes another swig from the bottle. It was clumsy and some dribbled on his chin. He wipes it with the back of his hand and Kei laments the waste.

“All I wanted was to win.”

Kei reaches for the bottle before Kageyama tips it over wrong and spills all the alcohol to the ground.

“Don’t we all,” he mumbles against the lip of the bottle before taking a swig.

“Why are you here Tsukishima?”

Kei sighs, relishing the burn down his throat. Why is he here? Kageyama’s asked the question a number of times before. Kei never answers because, really, Kageyama already knows the answer to that. The same reason he’s here of course. The same reason everybody is here. _Because we’re losers – failures. We’re fuck-ups._ Kageyama already knows. It’s the ‘how’ that is what he actually wants to know - how did Kei ended up here.

Maybe it’s the alcohol talking or maybe because Saturday was something awfully shitty and it’s almost the sunrise of a Sunday and Kei is still feeling awfully shitty because he supposes it wouldn’t hurt to tell Kageyama how he ended up in this dump himself. After all, Kageyama already spilled his part of the story. Even if it’s due under the influence, it’s only fair to match the bargain.

“A series of bad decisions,” he says as he takes a drag. “I didn’t know what to do after high school. I just always thought I’d go in the same school and engineering program as my brother because he’s always talked about how great and amazing it was. So I thought, what the hell, might as well do what he’s doing if it’s all that.”

Kei takes a long swig. It makes a burning line down to his throat all the way to his stomach and it settles there. He spits his next words, forces them out of him to get it over with.

“But my brother he—he didn’t do what he was supposed to do in university. My parents sent him to study engineering but then he—he quit halfway and shifted courses. He—my brother _lied. My brother is a fucking liar.”_

It’s the first time he’s voiced it out. It takes a load of off him and makes it a little easier to breath, but not enough.

Perhaps the thing that was hardest on Kei is not of his parents pinning their failed hopes and dreams for his brother on him instead, but rather of his brother lying to him. He’d always talked about university like it’s the best thing in the world and how good he was doing and how he’s ahead of his class when in reality he flunked out on half of his courses and was eventually kicked off the program.

Kei finishes his cigarette and bites at the filter in annoyance when he feels for his pack and finds it empty. He flicks the stub aggressively and it flies over the edge. Kageyama is looking at him expectantly, waiting. He exhales through gritted teeth and continues.

“So now I’m stuck in a school I don’t like, in a course I know shit about and in a program I really don’t give a flying fuck about. I’m stuck in this godforsaken place and there’s no way out.”

He looks over to see Kageyama’s reaction and waits for the judgement, the tell-tale sign of him thinking how petty Kei is being, how shallow his reasons are. There was none and Kei thinks it makes it just a little easier but he’s not really sure.

Kageyma just silently hands him the bottle, offering the last swig. Kei takes it and they lay side by side on the cold floor until the sun is up.

Later, when the hangover’s passed and they’re back up drinking cold coffees on Styrofoam cups, Kageyama will ask him ‘why not go back?’ and Kei will counter with ‘why not try again?’ The words will feel cold and bitter on their tongues but they’ll blame it on the coffee instead.

\--

A week later they kiss.

Neither knows who and how it started. All Tobio knows is his lips are pressed against Tsukishima’s in an angry, all tongue and teeth, bruising kiss. It’s angry and bruising because that’s all they know how to be.

It’s a close-mouthed kiss at first before Tsukishima’s tongue darts out to lick the seam of Tobio’s lips making him gasp and Tsukishima slips his tongue pass. His hands are cold against Tobio’s nape, playing with the hair there, curling and uncurling it with his long bony fingers. Tobio pulls a little, bites and sucks at Tsukishima’s lower lip as his hands fists at the blonde’s lapels, before he is pulled back and their lips smashed again.

Their lips slant aggressively against each other, breathing through their noses because it’s better than pulling apart and having the chance to think if this is allowed, if this is wrong and what the fuck are they doing. At some point someone draws blood and there was a moan - from whom, none of them can tell - and they revel at the taste of copper in their mouths.

At the back of their minds they know it’s a bad decision. But then again it’s what brought them here so what the hell. Their lives are already full of bad decisions anyway. What’s another gonna do?

\--

“We were sober then weren’t we?”

Kei lets out an exhale. He hates it when Kageyama voices out things he shouldn’t. Why the fuck does he do that? It’s like he’s just begging for Kei to punch him or throw him off the roof.

He also hates it that he knows exactly what Kageyama is talking about without having to ask for a context.

Something like ‘it was morning of course we were sober’ was at the tip of his tongue but then Kei remembers that they’re almost always drinking when they’re here regardless if the sun is up or not so instead he says:

“Probably.”

He sees Kageyama’s face scrunch up. His eyebrows draw and his nose slightly crinkles. Kei has come to know this as his thinking face and if he were anyone else he’d think it’s cute. He gathers Kageyama doesn’t do it often, thinking that is, but when he does he tends to go into dangerous territories with no regard for the circumstances and says the first thing on his mind—because he is an idiot who doesn’t know that there are some things that just shouldn’t be said out loud.

Kageyama opens his mouth and Kei is just sure he is gonna say something he shouldn’t, something stupid and something Kei doesn’t want to hear because it would make him think and therefore would give him a headache.

So he rolls on top of Kageyama and covers his mouth with his before he can utter a word.

The words die in the back of the other boy’s throat as Kei pushes his tongue pass his lips. They turn into a moan as Kei does something that made Kageyama’s eye shut and fireworks dance behind his eyelids. Kei feels the other boy’s hand grips his sides as he pulls him closer.

They pull apart for air and Kei stares down at dazed electric blue eyes.

“We should do this when we’re drunk.”

Kei just smirks.

“Probably.”

Kageyama pulls him down again and then the world is lost.

\--

They never go further than that. Even when drunk out of their minds they never go further than making out and the occasional light touching. It’s like there’s an unspoken rule that anything beyond those is crossing the line and certainly out of the question.

But for some reason, Tobio’s thoughts go further.

“Will it ever get better?”

_Will we ever get better?_

“I don’t know. Maybe.”

Tobio hates the way Tsukishima answers questions - always one-worded and always vague. He realizes he is what he says he is: stuck. And it seems like Tsukishima has no plans on getting out of that state but Tobio—Tobio has never settled for mediocre. He never settled for just _fine, just okay, it’s the way it is so just get over it._ Tobio wants to be better. He wants to get out of the stump he is in now and be better.

And he hates how Tsukishima has basically just given up. Hates that he won’t even try and thinks there is no way out and hates his vague _I don’t knows_ and _Maybes._ Tobio hates the way he says it, with a tone that implies it’s stupid to even try.

Because, yes, okay, despite his current shitty disposition and how he has trouble admitting it to himself, Tobio is actually a bit of an optimist and there is nothing more he hates than people who won’t even try because— _God, how he tries._ It’s what’s got him in this shit in the first place. He tries too hard and expects others to do the same too.

In the short time he knew Tsukishima, for reasons he can’t think of other than because he is just a really negative pessimistic asshole, Tobio knows there is nothing more the boy hates than optimism. And between him and Tsukishima, both of them currently stuck in an endless spiral down to shit, somebody has to be the there’s-a-light-at-end-of-the-tunnel one and he hates Tsukishima more for making him be that person.

So Tobio doesn’t care. He’ll fucking say it.

“We’ll be okay.”

He hears the derisive snort almost instantly and sees the tick in Tsukishima’s jaw albeit slight it is.

“Sure.”

There it is again. Tobio can hear all the mockery in just one word.

_Optimistic are we? How cute._

So he grabs Tsukishima and kisses him to shut him up.

\--

It’s been two weeks since Kageyama last went up the rooftop and Kei is beginning to think he’s finally lost it and really did jump off the edge.

Then again, he hasn’t heard of a body being scraped off the building’s sidewalk and no one new has moved in yet. At least, he hasn’t heard about it. The thing with living in a place like theirs is everyone knows when someone new has moved in because, more often than not, the reason for someone moving out is some sort of tragedy (and everybody just loves a tragedy don't they?) And Kei hasn’t heard of anyone hanging themselves in their apartment yet either so he figures Kageyama’s just busy with something or other.

Not that he’s worried or anything. Kei hasn’t worried for anyone in a long time. It’s just that he’s gotten used to seeing Kageyama on the rooftop and, this he is willing to admit, drinking with someone from time to time isn’t so bad. Misery loves company after all.

(It’s not like he misses the cold coffee with the cheap vodka, or the way Kageyama’s chapped lips felt against his, or the way the smoke travels between them when they’re shotgunning, or how Kageyama looks after - breathless and dazed electric blue eyes - somehow makes the smoke travelling down his throat to his lungs searing.)

And then he sees Kageyama sprinting around the campus’ open gym with a short ginger kid beside him who really looked like he shouldn’t be in university yet. They’re both wearing a jersey with the university logo; the big and obnoxious numbers stitched at the back of the black material.

Kei sees Kageyama sprinting around the campus’ open gym with a short ginger kid wearing the same university volleyball team jersey and looking most alive since Kei had laid eyes on him. He’s holding a volleyball in his hands the way the bespectacled boy has never seen him do before. Hands almost reverent as he presses the volleyball between his hands unlike the few times he’s seen him holding one in the rooftop looking like he wants nothing more than to just throw it over the edge. Kageyama is holding the volleyball now like he’s actually glad he has it in his hands.

And when he tosses it in a perfect arc to the short ginger, who hits it with a speed that should not be possible, the ball lands on the other side of the court with a resounding thud that echoed through the gymnasium, and he is smiling.

Kei watches the scene unfold and he is livid. Kei is livid because _what the actual fuck._

He storms away and out the campus seething and angrier at the world than ever. Kei hopes Kageyama would think twice before going up the rooftop again because he might just throw him over if he catches him there.

\--

It’s two days after when Tobio goes up to the roof again. He knows Tsukishima is there because that’s where he spends his Friday nights and Saturday mornings. It’s been a while since he’s been up, but it’s not because he misses Tsukishima and his frankly terrible and cold attitude but because it’s a routine and he’s broken the routine for three weeks now and he feels that maybe that’s not good. What makes him feel that he’s not quite sure.

True enough he sees Tsukishima lying down in the middle, headphones on and his hands in the pockets of his hoodie. His eyes are closed behind his glasses and Kageyama looks down at him holding two Styrofoam cups of lukewarm coffee in each hand. Tsukishima must’ve felt his presence because he opens an eye before closing it again. If Kageyama isn’t used to it by now he’d think the boy is being rude but instead he just sits down and sets one cup down beside Tsukishima.

He expects the boy to get up and get out his flask like usual but he doesn’t. He just stays as he is for a long time that Tobio thinks he might be sleeping. At length, probably when he felt Tobio staring at him, Tsukishima finally speaks, still not moving or opening his eyes, in the coldest voice Tobio has ever heard him use.

“Don’t you have somewhere to be?”

“It’s Friday night. I brought you coffee.”

Tobio is confused. It hasn’t been that long since they last saw each other that Tsukishima will forget their routine is it? The boy abruptly sits up and turns to him. For a moment, Tobio is stricken with the way he looks at him. Tsukishima’s eyes look sharper than usual and his sneer is like a knife.

“Why do you even keep bringing me one?”

“Well, I—”

“I don’t want your goddamn coffee. I hate your goddamn coffee. It’s cold and bitter and taste like _shit_.”

Tobio blinks before Tsukishima’s mood rubs off on him and he feels the annoyance bubbling up inside him to anger.

“Cold and bitter just like you, huh.”

Tsukishima’s eyes are dark and his sneer is enough to cut but Tobio is not fazed. He sees the tick in the other boy’s jaw and how his sharp gold eyes narrows at him in a vicious glare. Tobio hears the venom in his voice as he hisses out his words.

“Get the fuck out.”

“What the fuck is your problem? I know you have a lot of issues but whatever it is don’t fucking take it out on me.”

Tobio is aware of Tsukishima’s moods but he’s never commented about them because Tsukishima never takes it out on him. But this, when Tsukishima is being a dick more than he usually is and it is directed at him when he didn’t even do anything, he refuses to fucking take it lying down.

“Shut up and get the fuck out of here.”

“What the fuck is your fucking problem?”

“Why don’t you ask your new teammate about it? You’re back on the team aren’t you? So, why the fuck are you still here?”

“Is that what this is about?”

Tobio stares at him, bewildered. He couldn’t believe it. He knew Tsukishima is a miserable fuck but he didn’t think he was petty and immature. As far as he knows, the bespectacled boy generally doesn’t give a fuck about anything so Tobio doesn’t understand why he’s so affected over him being back on the university volleyball team.

“Shut up and leave.”

“So what if I’m back on the team? What does that have to do with anything? And what have you got to be so prissy about it?”

“I said shut up—“

“No, you shut up! You don’t own this goddamn place. You said so yourself. I’m back on the team, why is that such a problem?”

Tsukishima looks at him with something like defiance and hurt and betrayal and something else Tobio can’t decipher. There are words at the tip of Tsukishima’s tongue that he knows are intended to cut him but he doesn’t say it. He just looks down at Tobio with ever condescending eyes like burning liquid gold and a tick at his jaw, shoulder’s tense as if he’s physically restraining himself from lunging at him.

And Tobio just sighs because he finally understands.

“You’d think as a friend you’d be happy for me seeing as I’m the only person putting up with you.”

“We’re not friends, Kageyama. We’re just two fucked up individuals who get wasted on the rooftop of a shitty building. We’re not friends.”

The sneer turns into a smirk, cold and humorless, as he drawls his words. Tobio is sure there’s more where that came from. Tsukishima isn’t exactly sparing when it comes to his biting words and his intentions to hurt but Tobio decides not to stick around to hear the rest.

“You’re such a fucking asshole.”

“Tell me something I don’t know.”

\--

A month before the end of the semester, Kei goes up and sees Kageyama lying in the middle of the rooftop and tossing a ball over his head. Beside him there are two Styrofoam cups of what he knows are cold coffee and Kei just lets out a sigh before shuffling towards the other boy. Kageyama stops tossing the ball over his head as soon as Kei’s shoes are beside him. Kei clears his throat.

“Hey.”

“Hey.”

Kageyama sits up and sets the ball in his lap. He hands Kei one of the cups as Kei gets out his flask from the pockets of his hoodie and then he pours half and half of the flask’s contents on each. For a moment they are just silent, sipping at their cups and looking straight ahead.

The sun hasn’t risen behind the buildings yet but it’s already bright enough to be considered morning. The morning air is increasingly getting colder every day and Kei gathers it’s gonna snow soon. In the distance they could hear the city slowly waking up as the sounds of cars and traffic and the low hum of civilization gradually starts. The silence between them stretches but it’s not awkward or uncomfortable, it never is.

“I’ve met someone.” Kei says his eyes watching the swirling liquid in his cup as his fingers moves it in circles.

“Yeah?”

He thinks of the boy he met at the library with the most ridiculous bed hair he’s ever seen. Pre-law, he said, sounding half like it’s the bane of his existence and half like there’s nothing else he’d rather do. He sits with Kei every time he catches him in the library and occasionally buys him lunch and reminds him to not smoke a whole pack in one sitting. He also annoys the hell out of him and sometimes Kei is torn between wanting to set him or himself on fire but he smiles at Kei and thinks he’s hilarious and doesn’t take offense to the things that come out of Kei’s mouth.

“He makes things easier—tolerable.”

Kageyama hums, closes his eyes, a ghost of an almost smile on his face.

“That’s good. That’s great.”

“Yeah.” Kei swallows. “I’m…I’m going home for the break. I might do some...thinking.”

“You’re already always thinking, Tsukishima.”

“It’s not that bad. You should try it some time.“ Kageyama just chuckles and shoves him lightly. Kei just smirks. “And you? Will you be going home?”

“Not yet. We have practice until the end of the month. I’ll probably be only home for a little bit and then I’ll have to be back for training again for the Inter-collegiates. I’m being trained to be the next official setter.”

“I see.” Kei says and allows a small smile from the tone in Kageyama’s voice and the identical quirk of his lips. “Congratulations.”

“Thanks. I’m, uh, moving out of here. My teammate he—he found a new place and asked me if I could be his roommate.”

“The small ginger right? I see.”

“And—and he’s asking if I know anyone who’d be interested in taking his old place.”

Kageyama doesn’t look at him, just stares straight at the horizon and down in his cup alternately. Kei is smart enough to know that this is Kageyama offering him a way out of this godforsaken place. A place to start over again. A place to start fresh. This is Kageyama being a friend.

This Kei acknowledges. Between sitting on the rooftop on odd hours of the day, Friday nights, cold coffee and cheap vodkas, somewhere in between, he and Kageyama had indeed become friends.

And maybe that’s what he has always needed.

“I see. Tell him you know someone who might be interested.”

“Will do.”

Kageyama actually smiles then, lips stretching in a grin against his Styrofoam cup as he takes a sip.

“Hey, Tsukishima.”

“Yeah.”

“We’ll be okay.”

Kageyama repeats the words he said a couple of months ago when Kei was still 150% angry at the world and convinced that this is all it will ever be. He remembers sneering at the boy and shutting him up in the only way he knew how and thinks how pathetic he must’ve been, giving up without even trying, submitting to the mediocrity life has thrown at him.

Their hands are beside each other, fingers brushing at the tips, and it didn't matter to Kei who moved first to take whose hands because as he squeezes Kageyama’s cold hands he squeezes his back. When Kageyama turns to look at him he is met by electric blue eyes, alive and shining in its determination and the conviction in his words.

And Kei really wants to believe him.

“Yeah.” He swallows, breathes. “We’ll be okay.”

**Author's Note:**

> Not my first Haikyuu!! fanfic but the first one posted here. You can check out my other works [here](http://randomprose.tumblr.com/tagged/writing) and [here](https://www.fanfiction.net/u/1592826/proserandom)
> 
> Hit me up at [Tumblr](https://www.randomprose.tumblr.com)!


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